Pop quiz: How many albums has Willie Nelson released in his career? Keep in mind
that he first arrived in Nashville in early 1960. Yes, that’s 1960. Before The
Beatles had ever found their way to American soil and before JFK had taken
office, Willie Nelson was trying to get his first break in Nashville. Oh yeah,
he was already 27 years old!

By 1963, Willie had written hit songs for Patsy Cline and Ray Price, among
others. It wasn’t until almost a decade later, however, that his star began to
shine in its own right against the backdrop of mainstream country music. Willie
came and went for years thereafter, he battled tax evasion charges in the ‘80s
and just about scrapped his musical career altogether as his genre fell out of
favor. Yet somehow he endured it all to remain painstakingly relevant and even
newly-energized within the post-Nirvana generation. Hard to believe at age 71,
but Willie Nelson is currently cranking out new material at the most fevered
pace of his career, nearly a dozen albums in this decade alone. He’s
collaborated with virtually every artist who’s anybody over his magnificent
livelihood, a routine that’s served him particularly well of late. A series of
recent USA Network TV specials has produced three spectacular live records
featuring partnerships with Sheryl Crow, Ryan Adams, Merle Haggard and Norah
Jones, to name a very few.

It Always Will Be finds Willie back in the studio with a handful of new
original compositions, as well as a smattering of well-advised covers and
dazzling duets. The end result falls somewhere just shy of astral. On the title
track, a simple and elegant slide guitar whispers throughout one of Willie’s
finest ballads in years. Mickey Raphael’s longtime harmonica accompaniment opens
“Picture in a Frame,” a sobering take on the Tom Waits masterpiece. Toby Keith
shares a writing credit on “Tired,” a woozy cowboy waltz, but lets Willie sing
the tale of “selling my body for these nickels and these dimes.” “I Didn’t Come
Here (and I Ain’t Leavin’)” is an oft-revisited barroom shuffle that packs a
particular wallop here, as does a full-tilt version of the Allman Brothers’
“Midnight Rider.”

Pound for pound, It Always Will Be weighs in as a heavyweight, far more
convincing than anything Willie needed to register at this point in his striking
career. Regardless of where the worn and shabby road warrior leads us from here,
no one can deny the radiance of the Willie Nelson light. And did you notice? I
never did supply the answer to my original question...